LONDON, UK – Samuel Duffy, who works as a Barista Maestro, at the Costa Coffee store at Birmingham Fort has been crowned Costa Coffee’s UK Barista of the Year 2023. The 23-year-old, who lives in Birmingham, has been working for Costa Coffee for five years and impressed the judges with his flare, skill, and passion for coffee and creating beautiful, crafted drinks.
After seeing off competition from all over the UK and Ireland, Samuel Duffy competed against seven other finalists across two days of intense competition to take the coveted title of Barista of the Year 2023.
Kieran Mills from Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge was the runner up and third place was awarded to Michaela Wilson from Haskins Garden Centre West End in Southampton.
The Barista of the Year competition was hosted this year by comedian and TV presenter Joel Dommett.
Open to any Costa Coffee barista, the competition provides team members an opportunity to showcase their skills, knowledge and expertise, whether it is producing handcrafted drinks like Costa Coffee’s signature Flat White or being able to deliver one of up to 600 drink combinations at a moment’s notice.
All finalists underwent numerous challenges across the two days, focusing on technical skills that showcased not only their skill, aptitude , and passion but their ability to deliver consistency in all their handcrafted drinks.
This included creating five core drinks in five minutes including using Adez dairy alternatives and creating identical Flat Whites and Cortados. The final challenge included creating an original signature drink, which judges felt Samuel exceeded at, wowing them with his creative approach and use of ingredients.
Speaking about his win, Sam said: “It has been a crazy journey, but I’m absolutely thrilled to be crowned Costa Coffee’s Barista of the Year 2023. For me, being a barista isn’t just a job, it’s my career and I was so excited to have a chance to enter the competition to show off my talent – especially getting the chance to design my own drink – maybe it’ll end up on the menu one day!”
Karolina Kurek, Coffee Laboratory Manager at Costa Coffee and Head Judge said: “The Barista of the Year competition is an opportunity to see the best of the best in action.
It’s a tough competition to judge as I’m always impressed by the levels of skill and passion that are shown by the finalists to create beautiful, crafted coffee to an exceptional standard.
Samuel is a well-deserved winner who showed calm and confidence throughout the competition and a fantastic original drinks creation, which we are keeping top secret for now! He really demonstrated the perfection, art and craft that goes into a premium tasting coffee, and I can’t wait to see what he does in the future!”
